Malachi 3:5-12 Interpretation & Application

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Malachi 3:5-12

Interpretation

  • Verses 5-6 are a continuation and parallel of verses 1-4 where God says He shall suddenly come as a refiner and a cleaner. He promises to purify the sons of Levi – the result being that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

    • Verse 5 details some things that God will judge in the refining process of verses 2-3 including: sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, and those who oppress the poor in various ways.

    • Verse 6 tells us how and why the pleasant offering of Judah, described in verse 4, will be restored – I am Jehovah, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

  • Verse 7 is God’s accusation that they have gone away from His ordinances from the days of their fathers, and His plea to Judah to repent and return to Him and Judah’s response.

    • Judah’s response is as if to say, What do you mean return? We never left!

  • In verse 8, God gives them a black and white example of their departure from Him (since they obviously did not take ownership of any of the sins listed in verse 5)

    • You have robbed Me – God.

    • Judah’s response, How have we robbed you?

  • Verse 9 is God’s answer, This whole nation has robbed me in tithes and offerings and, as a result, you are cursed. (the tithes were intended, in part, to support the poor, hence their oppression of the poor detailed in verse 5)

      • The curse is seen in verse 11 – the devourer is destroying the fruits of their ground and their vine is casting its fruit prematurely.

      • This is part of the physical blessings and cursing promised to the nation Israel by God in Deuteronomy 28.

  • In verse 10, God pleads for them to prove Him by bringing all the tithes, and see if He doesn’t bless them so much there won’t be room to receive it all.

  • In verse 11-12, the “I will”, “shall”, “shall”, “shall”, “shall”, wording indicates this is a promise of what God will do in the future. The LORD of hosts says, all nations shall call them blessed because they shall be a delightsome land.

Application

  • The thrust of this passage is that Judah was being disobedient to God and needed to repent.

    • Their disobedience resulted in the curse from God on the nation.

    • God’s desire was for them to repent and return so He could start blessing them again.

As Christians – those who have experienced the new birth – we need not fear the curse of God. Jesus took that curse for us. Galatians 3:13  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us . . . However, as God’s children, by both birth and adoption, we are subject, when we disobey, to our Father’s discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11). God’s chastening, rebuke, whipping, and correction is for the purpose of yielding the fruit of righteousness. This is Spiritual fruit, as opposed to the physical fruit promised to the nation Israel as a reward for its obedience.

This fruit of righteousness, obedience to Christ, is always empowered, not by my resolve, but by God’s grace – His gift of faith, our new life, and union with Christ.

  • Philippians 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 

  • Romans Chapters 6, 7 & 8

God is always calling me to obedience (not mere mental assent to his commands or knowledge of the Scripture). In Jesus’ parable of the builders in Luke 6:46-49, both men heard Jesus’ sayings. The difference was that the man who digged deep and built his house on a rock does them – he is obedient, whereas the man who built without a foundation hears and does not – he is disobedient. The house built on obedience cannot be shaken, but the house built without obedience will fall and the ruin will be great.

When I disobey, God is always calling me to repentance. If necessary, He will use discipline to motivate me to repent and obey. Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

This discipline can range anywhere from a quiet prompting of the Holy Spirit, to illness and physical death.

  • Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 

  • 1Co 11:30  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.  31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 

  • 1Jn 5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. 17  All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. 

Regardless of the method God uses, His purpose is always the same, to restore me, through repentance, to obedience – the place of blessing and joy.